This invention relates to the use of recombinant DNA techniques to produce heteropolymeric proteins.
Various polypeptide chains have been expressed, via recombinant DNA technology, in host cells such as bacteria, yeast, and cultured mammalian cells. Fiddes, J. C. and Goodman, H. M. (1979) Nature Vol. 281, pg. 351-356 and Fiddes, J. C. and Goodman, H. M. (1980) Nature Vol. 286, pg. 684-687 describe the cloning of, respectively, the alpha and beta subunits of human choriogonadotropin (hCG).
Sugimoto U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,036 describes a process for producing hCG in which human lymphoblastoid cells are implanted into a laboratory animal, harvested from the animal, and cultured in vitro; accumulated hCG is then harvested from the culture.